When it comes to eating healthy, one of the biggest challenges people face is making nutritious food taste as good as its less healthy counterparts. Finding ways to enhance the flavor of wholesome ingredients is key to maintaining a healthy and satisfying diet. This is where monosodium glutamate, or MSG, can play a valuable role.
What Is MSG and How Does It Work?
MSG is a seasoning that has been used to enhance the flavor of food for over a hundred years. MSG is glutamate, a naturally occurring amino acid found in many foods such as tomatoes, mushrooms, and Parmesan cheese, plus one sodium molecule.
One of the things MSG seasoning does is add umami flavor to food. Umami is one of the five basic tastes, along with sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. It is often described as a meaty or broth-like flavor, and it is what gives certain foods their satisfying, hearty quality.
How to Use MSG
While some recipes call for a specific amount of MSG, you can also add a dash, taste the dish, and adjust as you go. Just like using too much of any spice, you’ll know when you’ve used enough or too much. To help, here are five videos on how to cook with MSG.
How Does MSG Wake Up Food Flavor?
What makes MSG special is its ability to not only add umami taste but also to enhance other flavors, leading to a dish that has rich, deep, and complex flavor. In fact, MSG is said to “wake up food flavor” because of the way it enhances and balances the flavors in foods.
Why Is Flavor Enhancement Important?
Flavor shapes our eating habits. If healthy food doesn’t taste good, we won’t consistently eat it no matter how good it is for us.
This is where MSG can make a difference. By enhancing the flavor of nutritious ingredients, MSG helps to create dishes that are both healthy and will be eaten.
The Benefits of Using MSG in Healthy Cooking
Another benefit of using MSG is that it allows the cook to reduce the sodium content of meals without sacrificing flavor. While MSG does contain sodium, it has significantly less than table salt—about two-thirds less, in fact. This means MSG can be used to add flavor to dishes while using less salt overall.
The rich meaty umami flavor MSG adds may also help add depth to dishes with lower amounts of fat. Likewise, MSG is a great tool for adding depth to vegetarian and vegan meals, which can sometimes lack the richness and depth that can come from meat.
Practical Tips for Using MSG
Incorporating MSG into cooking can be done with just a few simple steps:
- Start Small: A little goes a long way. Begin by adding about half a teaspoon of MSG per pound of meat or per dish that serves four to six people. Then adjust the amount based on taste preferences.
- Pair with Other Seasonings: Use MSG in combination with other herbs and spices to create a well-rounded flavor profile. MSG works particularly well in soups, stews, sauces, and marinades.
- Enhance Plant-Based Dishes: Try adding a pinch of MSG to dishes with mushrooms, tomatoes, or soy-based products for a savory boost.
Conclusion
MSG is a powerful tool for enhancing the flavor of healthy foods, making nutritious eating more enjoyable and sustainable. Whether trying to reduce sodium, enhance the richness of low-fat dishes, or simply make vegetables taste better, MSG can help achieve flavorful, satisfying results.
